Big list of Japanese Mahjong terminology

Yo, this is UmaiKeiki once again. This post comes at the request of MOUIKKAI who wanted some kind of glossary of basic game terms so we can translate stuff.

This probably came about because Osamu and Fukuchi-sensei read each other’s blogs and discovered how English and Japanese abbreviate three-player mahjong:

三人麻雀 = 三麻 (sanma)
3-player mahjong = 3p

I’ll also try to include a list of common English terms that differ from the Japanese. Obviously I can only include the most common words or else this post would never end…

English list

Here’s a list of commonly used English terms that differ from the Japanese equivalent to some extent. In most cases this is due to the influence of card games like rummy and poker.

dealer

oya (親)

The name Mahjong refers to sparrows, so one person is the Oya (parent), and the others are Ko (children).

walls

yama (山)

Means "mountains".

dead wall

wanpai (王牌)

Means "royal tiles". Insert "wang tiles" joke here.

dragons

sangenpai (三元牌)

Means "three elements". The individual tiles are often referred to by colour in the West because players are not expected to learn the characters.

suit

shoku (色)

Means "colour".

meld

mentsu (面子)

"Meld" comes from rummy, the card game most closely related to mahjong.

set

koutsu (刻子)

"Set" also comes from rummy; a common alternative is "3 of a kind" from poker.

run

shuntsu (順子)

"Run" comes from rummy; "Straight" from poker.

Here’s the list of basic game terms in Japanese, with kanji given whenever possible. You probably won’t need many of the kanji, though, as mahjong terms seem to be frequently written in katakana. This list won’t cover yaku names (which you can get here) and slang terms (in which case the list would never end). I’m not a Japanese expert so don’t hesitate to make corrections or suggestions!

agari

和がり

Winning a hand, e.g. tsumo-agari, ron-agari.

aidayonken

間四軒

An interval of four between two discarded number tiles. Usually indicates dangerous waits.